Aum Shinrikyo and Religious Terrorism in Japanese Collective Memory

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910896408603321
• Autore: Ushiyama Rin
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Oxford : , : British Academy, , 2023; ©2023
• ISBN: 0-19-892646-4
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (231 pages)
• Collana: British Academy Monographs
• Disciplina: 363.3250952135
• Soggetti: Collective memory; Religion and sociology
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di contenuto: Cover -- Half-title -- Series information -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Dedication -- Table of contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Notes on the Text -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction -- The scope of this book -- Organisation of the book -- 2 Towards a Multi-layered Account of Collective Memory -- Collective memory as uneven commemorative processes -- Cultural trauma: Negative events as cornerstones of collective identity -- Bakhtin's literary vocabulary: Dialogue, polyphony, and heteroglossia -- Conclusions: Three propositions for a multi-layered model of collective memory -- 3 The Prelude to Destruction: The 1994 Matsumoto Sarin Attack1 -- The making of 'Asahara Shōkō' the guru -- Aum's doctrinal evolution -- Turn to militarism -- The immediate aftermath of the Matsumoto attack: The 'fact-finders' fail -- Conclusions -- 4 Shock and Anger: Societal Responses to the Tokyo Subway Attack -- Media responses to the Tokyo sarin attack -- Combating 'evil' -- The quest for ratings - uncovering Aum's inner workings -- Matsumoto re-signified -- Tracing the social causes of Aum -- Anomie -- Education -- Popular culture -- Transnational influences -- Religion under attack -- The making of a villain: Asahara the antagonist -- Distillation of evil -- Profanation -- Conclusions -- 5 Commemorating Crisis: State, Media, and Civil Responses to the Aum Affair -- State responses - Aum and the law -- Prevention of Destructive Activity Act (PDAA) -- Religious Corporations ; Act (RCA) -- Security laws -- Compensation for victims -- Criminal trials of perpetrators -- State responses - commemoration by official bodies -- Mediated commemoration -- Matsumoto re-remembered -- The Tokyo subway attack in mass media -- Beyond elite commemoration: Grassroots ritualised remembrance -- Erasing Aum's trails: The absence of material objects -- Conclusions.; 6 Public Intellectuals and the Struggle Over Mind Control1 -- Public intellectuals and collective memory -- Authoritative intellectuals and the rise of mind control as paradigm -- Authoritative intellectuals questioning the mind control narrative -- Murakami Haruki's Underground -- Mori Tatsuya's A, A2, and A3 -- Conclusions -- 7 Performing Victimhood: Pursuing Justice After Tragedy -- Victimhood and trauma re-examined -- Towards a performative understanding of victimhood -- Nagaoka Hiroyuki: The 'difference-antagonistic' model -- Takahashi Shizue: The 'solidarity-antagonistic' model -- Kōno Yoshiyuki: The 'solidarity-reconciliatory' model -- Conclusions -- 8 The Trauma of Perpetrators -- Recognising guilt - the view from 'below' -- The Canary Society -- Kaori's story -- Confessing guilt: Aum's killers -- Hayashi Ikuo -- Hayakawa Kiyohide -- Former leaders of Aum and Aleph: Combining apology and redress -- Jōyū Fumihiro: Continuing a (non)religious group -- Noda Naruhito: Entrepreneurial reparations -- Intergenerational guilt and perpetrators' trauma -- Matsumoto Rika -- Matsumoto Satoka -- Conclusions -- 9 Conclusions -- The Aum Affair in Japanese culture -- Final remarks -- Appendix: Glossary of Terms -- Bibliography -- Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: This is the first comprehensive study of the competing memories of Aum Shinrikyo's religious terrorism. Interrogating an array of primary sources including original interviews with victims and ex-members, this book reveals how clashing representations of the 'Aum Affair' have hindered social repair and reconciliation.